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POSITION 
 
 ASh 
 
 DUTIES OF THE NOKTH 
 
 REGARD TO SLAVERY. 
 
 BY ANDREW P. PEABODY. 
 
 Be-printed from the Christian Examiner for July, 1843. 
 
 NEWBURYPORT : CHARLES WHIPPLE 
 
 ABEL WHiWON, PRINTER. 
 1847. 
 
POSITION 
 
 AND 
 
 DUTIES OF THE NORTH 
 
 WITH 
 
 REGAKD TO SLAVERY. 
 
 BY ANDREW P. PEABODY. 
 
 i\ 
 
 Eeprinted from tlie Christian Examiner of July, 1843. 
 
 NEWBURYPORT : 
 
 CHARLES WHIPPLE. 
 1847. 
 
T36 
 
 73837 
 
 ABEL WHITTON, PRINTER, 
 
 CORNER OF STATE AND MIDDLE STREETS, 
 NEWBURYPORT. 
 
 ^'*^'^% 
 
 
 •S-A 
 
 .- ; 
 
POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE NORTH WITH 
 EEGAED TO SLAVERY. 
 
 It has been common, both at the South and the North, to deny 
 not only the duty, but the right of Northern men to discuss the 
 subject of slavery. The attempt has been made to draw around 
 the Africans in bondage a line of cncumvallation, which philan- 
 thropy, sympathy, nay, not even calm, dispassionate investigation 
 can cross with impunity. This line, however, we cannot hold 
 sacred. For the Africans are within the pale of human brother- 
 hood, which Christianity has marked for us ; and the fact, that 
 they are pai-t and parcel of our own body politic, certainly cannot 
 render them less our brethren. Nor, on the other hand, can the 
 fact, that they belong to States which wield some of the attributes 
 of independent sovereignty, rightfully exclude them from oui' 
 sjTnpathy, unless we have been wrong in sympathizing with thp 
 Greeks and Poles, and with the Asiatic tributaries of Great Britain, 
 with whose oppressors we surely have as little political connection 
 as with the Southern States of our own Confederacy. Is it said 
 that the Constitution and laws of the Union preclude our action in 
 the premises, and therefore should suppress our sympathy, or at 
 least the free utterance of it ? We deny that the Constitution or 
 fundamental laws of the Union put this subject beyond the reach 
 of our political action ; and, if they did, and it should still appear 
 that God had placed us under religious obligations to the enslaved, 
 we cannot for a moment admit that human compacts or enactments 
 are valid against the divine law. Is it peremptorily asserted, that 
 we at the North have no responsibilities or duties with reference 
 to slavery V We still will contend for the right of trying this qne^- 
 tion ourselves, inasmuch as the question of responsibility or of duty 
 can never be answered by others in our stead. We say not at 
 the outset that it is our right or duty to act upon this subject ; but 
 merely maintain the right, nay, the duty of inquuy, — of deter- 
 mining, by the free exercise of our own judgment, whether and 
 how far we at the North are accountable for the wrongs and evila 
 of slavery, — whether and how far Providence has entrusted to \\h 
 the power, and given to us the m^ns of decisive influence and 
 
action in the cause of emancipation. To put and answer these 
 mf|uii-ie,s is the object of the present article. 
 
 We will first define the position of the people of the North with 
 reference to slavery, and our position will determine our duties. 
 
 In the first place, we stand in undoubted relations of brotherhood 
 to the entire slave population ; and, however much or little we may 
 Ije able to do for them, they are legitimate objects of our interest, 
 s}Tnpathy, and intercession; nor can it be questioned that we 
 should hold ourselves in readiness to perform in their behalf any 
 brotherly ofiice, which implies no trespass upon the rights or well- 
 being of others. 
 
 In the next place, we have with us at the North not a few of 
 the African race, with whom we have immediate social relations, 
 and our treatment of whom will be determined mainly by our feel* 
 ino'S towards their race as a whole. These negi'oes are among us, 
 as the outcast Parias are in Hindoostan. They are generally ex- 
 cluded from our common schools, and in some places are left with- 
 out any pro^Hsion for their education. From some churches they 
 are slmtout, and in others seated in a solitary loft above the organ, 
 forbidden so much as to stand on the same floor with their white 
 brethren in the house of Him, who " hath made of one blood all 
 nations of men," nay, not permitted to kneel at the sacramental 
 altar, till the last white communicant has retired to his seat. 
 There are very many, who seem to look upon the whole race with 
 loathmg and detestation. Now if there be anything wrong in tins 
 state of things, compassion for and sjonpathy with the slave are 
 more likely than aught else to set it right. But, if the great body 
 of the African race in our country be viewed with a resolute hard- 
 ness of heart, the few, with whom we come occasionally in contact, 
 will be sure to suffer neglect and contumely from us. 
 
 Yet again, there are at the North many ardent, devoted friends 
 of the slave, to whom, unless they have forfeited them by miscon- 
 duct, we owe all the duties of good neighborhood, friendship, and 
 Christian fellowship ; and our ^^ews of the subject of slavery must 
 determine, whether we shall treat them as deluded, erring, and 
 guilty men, or whether we shall regard them as endowed with the 
 true spirit of charity and philanthropy. They are, many of them, 
 persons of the most exemplary lives in eveiy other point of view, 
 — persons, of whom it is often said, that their anti-slavery princi- 
 ples are their only fault. Is this to be regarded as a hemous fault, 
 worthy of vehement reproof, censure, denunciation, excommunica- 
 tion ; or as in itself amiable and commendable ? If we are right 
 in considering slavery as a forbidden subject, and the slave as shut 
 out ])y the will and law of God from our sjiupathy, prayers, and 
 efforts, then Is the anti-slavery man, as such, a disorganizer, a man 
 
'mil of treason, a daiigoi'Oiis nieinbcr of society, to be treated with 
 suspicion and distrust. But if, on the other liand, we have duties 
 incumbent on us with reference to slavery, then he, who has the 
 t^ourage to meet these duties with a bold front, is worthy of high 
 esteem and honor, so far as he preserves the meek and gentle 
 spu'it of his blaster. To be .sui-e, if he be a fanatic, his fanaticism 
 on this, as on any other subject, is proof of a weak head. If he 
 be denunciatory, his bitterness of spuit on this, as on any other 
 subject, betrays a bad temper. But, simply as an anti-slavery 
 man, he is to be regarded with tlie same esteem, with which we 
 regard any other consistent and devoted laborer in any philan- 
 thropic work. But, we repeat it, our duties towards this portion 
 of om' fellow-citizens depend upon our views of the evil and the 
 remedy of slavery. 
 
 Then again, there is a great deal of emigration from the North- 
 em to the Southern States, and a heavy responsibihty rests on us 
 as to the tone of feeling and principle, with which tliose shall be 
 imbued, who go from among us to communities, where their im- 
 mediate influence must be given either for or against this form of 
 oppression. New England men, wherever they go, occupy prom- 
 inent places, and exert a commanding influence. They are more 
 apt to give than to receive law, — to control the current of opinion 
 than to yield to it. In some of the Southern towns and cities, 
 the chief men in every department of business and enterprise are 
 natives of New England. At present, these adopted citizens of 
 the South are, for t]ie most part, among the strongest and least 
 tolerant advocates of slavery. The Editor of the Southern Ee- 
 view, a work established chiefly for the maintenance of distuictive- 
 ly Southern prmciples, is a Northern man. j\Iany of our readers 
 remember the quite recent correspondence of a Churcli in Savan- 
 nah with the American Unitarian AvSsociation, in connection with 
 their sending home unheard a clergyman, who had been selected 
 for them on the express gromid of his standing uncommitted with 
 reference to Northern a])olitionism. From their unwillingness to 
 listen for a single Sabbath, or to give -he shghtest countenance to 
 one, who could be suspected of hostility to Southern institutions, 
 it might be inferred that this parish was composed of people, in 
 whose veins pure Southern blood had flowed for many generations. 
 But, in point of fact, this parish was comp')sed almost entirely of 
 Northern men. A clergyman, who officiated there for a season, 
 can recall the names of but three natives of the South among the 
 male paiishioners. Of the thi-ee members of the Committee of 
 correspondence with the Unitarian Association, two were Northern 
 men by buih; and still another member of the jiarish, who bore 
 =a prominent part in the transactions relating to Bev. Mr. ]Nrot[e. 
 
and indeed was an acknowledged leader in all ecclesiastical mat' 
 ters, was a Northern man, and then held an auction every Thurs- 
 day for the sale of human flesh. These flicts we have specified as 
 illustrating the state of principle and feeling which prevails with 
 hardly an exception, among Northern men, who have become cit- 
 izens of the South. Now there must be something grossly wrong 
 in the state of public feeling at the North, while such men and 
 few others are sent Southward. There must be bitterness at the 
 fountain, whence such streams flow. And we have no doubt that, 
 if the New England people, who are now at the South, had car- 
 ried with them what ought to be New England principles, and 
 simply lived them out by tacitly declining all connection with 
 slavery and all action in its favor, without any insurrectionary 
 language or movement, they would have done a vast deal towards 
 mollifying the tone of public sentiment at the South, and prepar- 
 ing the way for the gradual emancipation of the enslaved. A 
 healthy and active state of general sentiment at the North is then, 
 in this point of view, if in no other, of prime importance, and 
 would be of extensive and controlling mfluence. 
 
 We have as yet named prominent indeed, yet only secondary 
 features of our position with reference to slavery. T\^e are still 
 more intimately connected with the system. We, the people of 
 the North, are slave-holders and slave-dealers. The Constitution 
 and history of our Federal Government cover a vast amount of 
 pro-slavery recognition, sanction, legislation, and executive action, 
 and for all this the non-slaveholding States are accountable ; for 
 they liave always had the majority in the national counsels, and, 
 had they been trae to the principles, for which they professedly 
 contended in the war of the Revolution, the Federal Government 
 would have been clear of this unholy compact. Now what the 
 non-slaveholding states liave done, they may undo. Wliat tliey 
 have established they may abolish. What they have sanctioned 
 they may disavow. Let us then take a cursory view of what they 
 have done, established, and sanctioned ; for this is requisite in or- 
 der to define their position. 
 
 Our Constitution embraced at the outset a most unfortunate 
 compromise, guaranteeing the continuance of the slave-trade for 
 twenty years, without providing for its abolition even then ; and 
 against this many earnest and ferv-ent voices were raised by not a 
 few of the first and best men in the nation; among whom we would 
 make honorable mention of Joshua Atherton, of New Hampshire, 
 (grandfather of Hon. Charles G. Atherton^ who opposed the 
 adoption of the Constitution on this ground alone ; for, said he, 
 " If we ratify the Constitution, we become consenters to and par- 
 takers in the sin and guilt of this abominable traffic." By the 
 
Constitution, also, a larger than its due share of representation and 
 influence was secured to the Southern States, })y reckoning three- 
 fifths of the slaves in the numbers, on which the apportionment of 
 representatives in Congress is made, — an anangement, by which 
 the Southern minority of the free citizens of the country have been 
 fast approaching a majority in the representation, and will, if the 
 process go on unchecked, soon attain that majority by the increase 
 of slaves in the extreme South, and the creation of new slaveholding 
 states, as in the case of Texas and Florida. There is also an ar- 
 ticle in the Constitution, which permits the reclaiming of fugitive 
 slaves in the free States, and thus declares our territory, what it 
 has often been made, a hunting ground for slave-drivers. Under 
 this article, according to the construction of our Supreme Judiciaiy, 
 any citizen of the North, (he need not be black ; men as white as 
 most of our readers, have been claimed and seized as slaves at the 
 North,) may be seized and canied into slavery without the form 
 of trial, on the mere affidavit of the claimant before a justice of the 
 peace. The redeeming trait in this article is, that it does not make 
 it incumbent on the State authorities to act in such cases, and its 
 force may be evaded, (as it has been, to the honor of several of 
 the New England States,) by prohibiting, under severe penalties, 
 any of the State functionaries from aidmg in the arrest or verifica- 
 tion of persons claimed as slaves, and forl)idding the use of the 
 jails of the State for the detention of such persons. But still the 
 article is a foul blot upon our Constitution, and a memorial of a 
 sycophancy and subserviency to the South on the part of the 
 North, which has been as the life-blood of Southern slavery. 
 
 By the Constitution, Congi-ess has exclusive jurisdiction over 
 the territories belonging to the Union ; and, south of thirty-eight 
 and a half degrees of north latitude, CongTcsshas sanctioned slave- 
 ry in all those territories. Several new slaveholding States have 
 been admitted to the Union; and particularly, in 1840, J^Iissouri, 
 the question of whose admission was made to turn solely on the 
 point of slavery, was admitted with liberty to hold slaves, by 
 means of the infamous defection of Northern members of Congress 
 from the true principles of freedom. 
 
 Under the authority of Congress, also, and by the votes and 
 the acquiescence of Northern legislators, slaveiy and the domestic 
 slave-trade, in its most revolting features, are sustained in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, of which the entire, unrestricted jimsdiction is 
 vested in Congress. There are nowhere in the Union more severe 
 slave-laws than are sanctioned in that District by act of Congress. 
 The barbarity of the slave-laws in force there may be judged of 
 from one single item. A slave, convicted of setting fire to any 
 building, is to have his head cut off, his body divided into quar- 
 
8 
 
 iers, and the parts set up in the most public place.-\ In riie very 
 scat of government, any coloretl person may Le apprehended as a 
 fugitive slave ; and, if he proves himself free, he is charged with 
 all the fees and rewards given by law for the ap])rehension of run- 
 aways, and, upon failiu*c to make payment, he is liable to be sold as 
 a slave. Thus, under the veiy eye of Congress, a free man of color, 
 on his lawful business, may be arrested, thro\\^i into jail, and, if 
 too poor to pay charges, which range from forty-five to ninety dol- 
 lars, sold into irredeemaljle slavery. There have been, however, 
 cases in which blacks thus arrested have been discliarged. There 
 was reported to the House of Representatives a case, in which a 
 l)lack man was taken up on suspicion of being a runaway slave j 
 and kept confined four hundred and Jive days, in which time 
 vennin, disease, and misery had deprived him of the use of his 
 limljs, and made him a cripjjle for life, and he was then discharg- 
 ed because no one would ]juy him. Yet, while these things are 
 well known in CongTCss, and are brought before that l^ody by 
 committees of theii* own, they have repeatedly voted to make no 
 alterations in the slave-laws of the District, and to such votes 
 scores of Northeni legislators have recorded their names in the 
 afiu-mative. Meanwhile the neighboring State of Maryland, from 
 which many of these slave-laws were derived, yielding to tlie spirit 
 of tiie age, has expunged the most obnoxious of them from her 
 statute l3ook ; and on her soil, the man, who confesses himself a 
 slave, is released, if his master does not answer an adrertisemcnt, 
 and appear to claim him, withm a limited time. 
 
 Under tlie eye, and with the sanction of Congress, the District 
 of Columbia is also made the great slave-market of the Union. 
 There have been single numbers of tlie National Intelligencer, 
 that have contained advertisements relating to the pui'chase or 
 sale of not only hundreds, but even thousands of slaves. In the 
 city of Washington, so lucrative is tliis trade, that licenses to carry 
 it on, still binder the autliority of Congress, are given and regu- 
 larly paid for at a rate prescribed l)y the city corporation, which 
 has been and probably is now no less than four liundred dol- 
 lars. Nortliern members of Congress are often compelled to 
 meet droves of slaves on their way to a market or to the river, 
 handcuffed and chained together. This traffic is disgusting to the 
 best people of the District, has been petitioned against by large 
 numbers of them, has been presented as a imisance by gTand 
 juries, has been commented upon with righteous severity in 
 < Charges from the Bench, and yet legislators from the non-slave- 
 liolding States have not prmciplc, energy, and independence 
 f nougli to do it away. 
 
 By the Constitution, tlie ]-egulation of commerce between the 
 
several States is vested in Congress, and Congress has enacted 
 laws permitting the slave-trade between the States coastwise in 
 vessels of over forty tons })urthen, and prescriljing minutely tlic 
 manifests, forms of entry at the custom-house, and specifications 
 to be made by the masters of such vessels. By the same author- 
 ity a vast inland slave-trade is carried on, and immense numbers 
 are driven in herds from the Northern to the Southern and South- 
 western extremities of the slave-holding district, often thirty or 
 forty attached to the same long chain, each l)y a sliort chain affix- 
 ed to his iron handcuff. In Maryland and Virginia, tliis is a 
 business of prime importance; and large, jail-like places of depos- 
 it, well supplied with thumb-screws, gags, and cowhides, are 
 scattered at not infrequent intervals over the territoiy of those 
 States, v" In 1836, no less than forty thousand slaves had been 
 sold out of Vii'ginia within a year, for a sum of not less than 
 tioenty-four millions of dollars,* and, not long before that date, 
 a distinguished statesman of Virginia publicly declared, that his 
 native State had been converted into "one grand menagerie, 
 where men were reared for the market, like oxen for the sham- 
 bles, "t And all this under the authority of Congi'ess, and with 
 the consent of Northern legislators. 
 
 But our Federal Government has not confined its action on this 
 subject within its own jurisdiction. By express votes of Con- 
 gress, and of coui'se, of Northern members to constitute a majori- 
 ty, the Government has repeatedly negotiated with Great Britain, 
 (though happily with no success, except a paltry pecuniary re- 
 muneration in one or two instances,) for the restoration of fugitive 
 vslaves from Canada, and of slaves that have been cast by ship- 
 wreck upon British soil. And, to cap the climax of degradation, 
 our republic, when the permanence of slavery in the island of 
 Cuba was supposed to be threatened, made to the courts of Mad- 
 rid and of St. Petersburg, and to the Congress of Panama, the 
 most dolorous representations of the effect, which emancipation in 
 Cuba must needs have upon her own domestic institutions, and 
 intimated in the most explicit t^rms, that the United States would 
 without hesitation embark in any war, which might be necessary 
 to perpetuate slavery in that island, — yes, pledged tlie entire 
 strength and resources of this nation, which styles itself free, to 
 keep hundreds of thousands of human beings out of its own pre- 
 cincts in hopeless degradation and bondage. 
 
 Now, while such has been the spirit of a large portion of the 
 delegation to Congress from the non-slaveholding States, we cau- 
 
 * Niles' Register, Oct. S, 1S36. 
 
 t Speech of Thomas Jefferson Randolph, in the Virginia Legislature, in 
 1S32. 
 
10 
 
 not regard the long rejection of petitions bearing upon slavery as 
 a matter of surprise, or as furnishing additional ground for moral 
 indignation to an honest and philanthropic heart. Before the 
 right of petition was fomially denied, the majority of Northern 
 members had sufficiently shown that there was no right too sacred 
 to be yielded up to Southern dictation; and, as they would at any 
 rate have treated the subject-matter of these petitions with neg- 
 lect and indignity, it may have been as well for them to do the 
 work in brief, and to save the time and money of the nation by 
 one sweeping vote of rejection. 
 
 Such is the amount of action, permission, and sanction, for 
 which we at the North are accountable. To this degree are we 
 slave-holders and slave-dealei's. We are not indeed directly re- 
 sponsible for slavery within the borders of the several States. 
 That is their concern. But for eveiy act or recognition on the 
 part of the Federal Government we are accountable, — that is, we 
 the people, not our representatives or rulers, who are our agents, 
 but we individually, whenever we have voted for a man, who was 
 likely to cast a pro-slavery vote in Congress, whenever we have 
 learned with indifference , that our agent had cast such a vote, 
 whenever we have voted a second time for a man, who had once 
 cast such a vote. The acts of our representatives, which we let 
 go by um*ebuked, ai'e oui* acts. Tilien Northern men have thus 
 voted, it has been because their constituents were either indiffer- 
 ent to the whole matter, or strongly tinged with Southern princi- 
 ples. A late member of Congress,* who never failed, when the 
 opportunity offered, to vote in behalf of slavery, not long ago- 
 made the following expose of his political creed : " While in pub- 
 lic life, it has ever been, and will ever continue to be, my effort, 
 first to learn, and then to do the will of my constituents." This 
 man had for several years represented a State where the general 
 tone of public feeling then was either absolute indifference, or a 
 leaning towards the pro-slavery side of all these questions. The 
 iLse of the representative's o^ti conscience seems to have grown 
 obsolete, and instructions and pledges have so far supplied its 
 place, that, on all matters of importance, the alternative is obe- 
 dience or the resignation of one's office. Thus the burthen rests 
 upon the consciences of the citizens at large. 
 
 Such is the position of the people of the North, with regard to 
 slavery. What are the duties growing out of this position ? 
 
 In the first place, it is undoubtedly the duty of every citizen to 
 take cognizance of the subject, to know what slavery is, and to 
 have a just, and, so far as may be, an adequate idea of its evils 
 and enormities. In judging of Southern slavery, we have no need 
 
 * Hon. Henrv Hubbard, of Kew Hampsliire. 
 
11 
 
 to discuss tlie question, whether slavery is intrinsically and under 
 all circumstances an evil and a wi'ong. It is certainly within the 
 range of abstract possibility, that a state of things might exist, in 
 which something corresponding to the relation of master and slave 
 should be mutually beneficial. Such a state of things did proba- 
 bly exist in the patriarchal families in very early times ; and, from 
 all the hints that we can glean of those times, the servants or 
 slaves were generally the privileged j^arty. But this has nothing 
 to do with our negro slavery. The bondage of the African race 
 is the fruit of man-stealing, a crime denounced in the severest 
 terms by revelation, and utterly abhorrent to the very first prin- 
 ciples of humanity. Then again, our system of negro slaveiy sets 
 aside that law of God, by which the marriage covenant is pro- 
 aiounced inviolate and pennanent. There are among the slaves no 
 busbands and wives joined till death shall part them. Their union 
 m not marriage, nor is it usually sanctioned by tlie sacrilegious 
 mockery of a marriage ceremony. Those united for a season may 
 be, without their consent, separated scores or hundreds of miles 
 from each other, aiid then each is permitted, expected, nay, com- 
 pelled to enter into a new union, and, perhaps a few months after, 
 into yet another. The leading ecclesiastical bodies at the South 
 have even issued proclamations, declaring that the gospel laws of 
 ■matrimony are not to be considered as binding upon the slaves, 
 or with reference to them, and that the slave may lawfully change 
 his or her wife or husband with every change of residence. This 
 one feature is sufficient to make the whole system unspeakably 
 degrading and demoralizing, ina^nuch as it entirely breaks up the 
 institution of families, which is the choicest instrument of civiliza- 
 tion and refinement, the surest bond of vu'tue, and an essential 
 means of religious culture and discipline. Then too, in most of 
 the Southern States, deep and hopeless d-egradation is entailed 
 wpon the slaves, by their being wholly cut off from the means of 
 education; stripes, fines, and imprisonment impending over him or 
 her, who would teach a slave to read, or give him a Bible. Of 
 course, this system precludes all just and accurate knowledge of 
 truth and duty, and ail opportunity to rise in the scale of intellec- 
 tual and moral being. Under the present state of things, the 
 female slaves are necessarily, and almost universally, made \-ic- 
 tims of the licentiousness of the whites. The most decisive and 
 unanimous testimony is borne on this point by every honest wit- 
 aess. 
 
 With regard to the moral condition of the slaves, our fairest esti- 
 mate must of course be that founded on Southern testimony. In a 
 i-eport adopted and published by the Presbyterian Synod of South 
 
12 
 
 Carolina and Georgia, made but a few years since, it is said, 
 " that the negroes ai'e destitute of the priWleges of the gospel, 
 and ever will be, imderthe present state of tilings," — that they 
 " will bear comparison with heathen in any country in the world," 
 *— that "not a twentieth part" of the slaves attend public wor- 
 ship. A wiitcr in the Western Luminary, a respectable religious 
 newspaper in Kentucky, says : 
 
 "I proclaim it abroad to the Christian world, that heathenism 
 is as real in the slave States as it is in the South Sea Islands, and 
 that our negroes are as justly objects of attention to the American 
 and other boards of foreign missions, as the Indians of the western 
 wilds. "SVhat is it constitutes heathenism ? Is it to be destitute of 
 a knowledge of God, — of his holy word, — never to have heard 
 scarcely a sentence of it read through life, — to know little or 
 nothing of the history, character, instructions, and mission of Jesus 
 Christ, — to be almost totally devoid of moral knowledge and feel- 
 ing, of sentiments of probity, truth, and chastity ? If this consti- 
 tutes heathenism, then are these thousands, millions of heathens in 
 our beloved land. There is one topic to which I will allude, which 
 will serve to establish the heathenism of this population. I allude 
 to the universal licentiousness which prevails. It may be said 
 emphatically, that chastity is no virtue among them, — that its vio- 
 lation neither injures female character in then* own estimation, nor 
 in that of their master or mistress. No instmction is ever given, no 
 censure dispensed. I speak not of the world, I speak of Cbist- 
 ians generally." 
 
 Compared with this mental and moral degradation, (we might 
 almost say aniiihilatioyi, for the system does all that it can to 
 sink the man into the brute,) the mere physical sufferings con- 
 nected with it, severe as they are, dwindle into msignificance. 
 These may perhaps be often overrated ; the moral evils no imagi- 
 nation can overrate. As to the fare, as to the clothing of the 
 slaves, it is indeed scanty and poor, bearing no comparison, at 
 least on the plantations, with that of free laborers at the North, 
 yet much better, no doubt, than the English manufacturers and 
 many classes of free laborers m Europe can procure. With re- 
 gard to cruel treatment, there are doubtless many humane mas- 
 ters, and there is a degree to which the slaves are protected by 
 law, that is, they cannot be killed in mere sport or wantonness. 
 But the slave-laws of all the Southern States are written in bloody 
 and are a burning shame for a nation that boasts of its freedom, 
 and a foul outrage upon humanity i In Virginia, there are sei'enty- 
 mie offences, which, subjecting a white man only to imprisonment, 
 are in a negro punished with death. In Georgia, any person may 
 inflict twenty lashes on the bare back of a slave found off the 
 
13 
 
 plantation where he belongs without a written license; and there 
 are very many Southern laws, by which, not for crime, but for 
 merely nominal offences, any UTCsponsible person whatsoever, 
 without the intervention of a magistrate, may inflict from twenty 
 to forty lashes. By the laws of Maryland, a slave may, for rid- 
 ing a horse without leave, and for other hke insignificant offences, 
 be whipt, have his ears cropt, or be branded on the cheek 
 with the letter R. ^ut we will not go on with the loathsome and 
 harrowing recital ; we might fill many pages with it ; nor do 
 we believe that there stands written, whether in fact or fiction, 
 poetry or prose, anythmg so horrible, so shocking to every senti- 
 ment of humanity, as the statute-books of the Southern States. 
 
 In addition to the legal cruelty to which the slave is liable, he 
 is left in a great degree unprotected against private violence and 
 wrong. To force applied for however unlawful or biTital purposes, 
 the slave can make no resistance. Passive submission, not only 
 to one's own master, but to the whole white population, is enjoin- 
 ed by the severest penalties. ^ There are some cases, in which a 
 slave, for merely striking a white man, may be lawfully killed on 
 the spot ; and death, in Georgia for the second offence, and for the 
 thu"d in South Carolina, is the legal penalty for a slave's strikmg 
 any white person, under circumstances of whatever provocation, 
 or in resistance of any treatment, however unlawful, l>rutal, or 
 malicious. ' The slave is cut off from the benefit of trial by jury, 
 except in capital cases ; and m South Carolina, Virginia, and 
 Louisiana, life may be legally taken without the verdict of a jury. 
 In Louisiana, if the court is equally divided as to the guilt of a 
 slave, judgment is rendered against him. In 1832, thirty-five 
 slaves were executed at one time in Charleston, S.C, without the 
 intervention of a jury. The degree of protection which the slave 
 enjoys against over-working, and the security in which he holds 
 any little property of his own, may be judged of from the fact, 
 that the lowest prescribed limit of a slave's daily labor \q fifteen 
 hours, that in several of the States a slave is not permitted to 
 raise cotton or to keep domestic animals for his own benefit, and 
 that in several of the States masters are forbidden, under heavy 
 penalties, to let their slaves work for wages for their own benefit. 
 The extent to which the slave's life is protected may be inferred 
 from the law of South Carolina, which provides that, if a slave be 
 murdered by a white person in a sudden passion, or by excessive 
 punishment, the man who kills him shall pay a moderate fine, and 
 be imprisoned six months. 
 
 Now these laws are not merely indications of what may in ex- 
 treme cases be done to, or suffered by the slaves. Laws are the 
 surest index of the state of public sentiment in a community, and 
 2 
 
14 
 
 these laws show in what light the rights, the comfort, and the life 
 of the slave are regarded at the South. These laws are the true 
 criterion of judgment. Individual cases of hardship and gross 
 cruelty may exist under the most humane laws, wherever man 
 has power over his fellow-beings. We have ourselves known, in 
 our own neighborhood, cases of the cruel treatment of children 
 bound out at service, which, had they occurred at the South, 
 would have figured largely in anti-slavery reports ; but they would 
 here have been the subjects of the severest legal animadversion, 
 and would have roused the indignation of the whole community, 
 while at the South they would have been far within the liberty 
 granted by law, and would have excited no surprise or censure. 
 We doubt not that there are very many humane and conscientious 
 masters at the South, — many, who bear the burden of slavery \m- 
 willingly, and who cherish a Christian sense of duty towards this 
 species of property, from which they know not how to escape. 
 But we want no other proof than the advertisements in Southern 
 newspapers, to convince us that cases of gross inhumanity are ap- 
 pallingly frequent ; and even in the cities, where the slaves are 
 supposed to enjoy a condition of greater comfort than on the plan- 
 tations, the severe whipping of adult slaves, both male and female, 
 either by the master or by the public functionary appointed for 
 that purpose, is a common and habit^ial thing. 
 
 Such is slavery, — the institution for which our kind construc- 
 tion, our tolerance, our sympathy, our tacit approval, is often 
 claimed. Such is the slavery, which we Northern men help sus- 
 tain in the District of Columbia, and in the territories under the 
 national jurisdiction, and which, in the portions of the country 
 where it has the deepest dye, is replenished by a traffic conducted 
 under our sanction and authority. Such is the burden, which, 
 as it exists in the Southern States of the Union, claims not indeed 
 our interference until it is solicited, but our prayers and our sym- 
 pathy both for the enslaved and for their masters. And can it be 
 Heaven's will, that we should close our hearts against the knowl- 
 edge of such wrong and miseiy '! Shall constitutions and enact- 
 ments restrain prayer, and make void the law of God and of Jesus, 
 which says, *' AH ye are brethren?" But what shall we, what can 
 we lawfully do for the benefit of the slaves taken collectively? 
 
 In the first place, we can and should pray for the slave and his 
 master, in public and in private, not in mere form, but heartily, 
 fervently. And this we say, not professionally, but because we 
 believe in the efficacy of prayer. The evil is one of appalling 
 magnitude. The stone is very great. We cannot roll it away 
 unless God strengthen us and teach us how. But if all Christian 
 .people at the North would unite in earnest supplication to God for 
 
15 
 
 their unhappy brethren, he wouhl open their eyes to moihjs of hi- 
 fluence and effort now hidden. And on a subject so exciting, tlic 
 calm and gentle spuit of prayer is especially needed to purge phi- 
 lanthropy from all base admixture of earthly passion, to temper it 
 with justice and candor, and to prevent sympathy with the oj>- 
 pressed from degenerating into hatred and vindictive feelinfs to 
 wards the oppressor. We fear that on this subject there has been 
 too much preaching compared with the praying. 
 
 But we ought to preach as well as pray, and to write as well as 
 preach. The subject is an open one, and demands discussion ; 
 nor by its discussion can ^vl•ong be done to any, so long as the 
 laws of truth and of brotherly love are kept inviolate, and all 1)it- 
 terness and wrath are put away. It is often said, that slavery is 
 not a subject for the pulpit. But why not ? A just moral per- 
 spective will not indeed ensure it the broad and engi-ossing place 
 in pulpit services, which some assign to it. But we regai-d it as a 
 fit subject for discussion in the stated services of the sanctuary, 
 because slavery is a moral rather than a physical evil, and pre- 
 sents its most alarming and revolting aspects in a Clnistian point 
 'Of view ; because the evil is so desperate, that no power short of 
 the omnipotence of Chi'istian truth and love can reach it ; because 
 the slaves and the slave-holders are our brethren, children of our 
 Father, bound to us by religious ties, and it is therefore fitting 
 that we should bear them on our minds and hearts in our Father'^ 
 house ; because, if we have any duties towards them, they are re- 
 ligious duties, and therefore within the legitimate scope of the pul- 
 pit ; and, finally, because the subject is encompassed with so many 
 difficulties, and needs for the solution of them so much of the 
 wisdom that is from above, and for its discussion without offence 
 so much of that cahnness and meekness, which should cliaracter- 
 ize the pulpit more universally than it does, that we may well ap- 
 ply to it the language and imitate the example of the Psalmist, 
 with regard to perplexities of a different class; "If I say, I will 
 speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation of thy 
 children. "When I thought to know this, it was too jDainful for 
 me, until I went into the sanctuary of God." Let then a firm 
 and strong disapproval of the whole system breathe from the pul- 
 pit and the press, throughout the non-slaveholding States. Let 
 no man be ashamed, or afraid to utter or to wiite what he believes 
 and feels. Let this state of public sentiment be cherished at the 
 North, without any aggressive movement towards the South ; and 
 it eamiot but make itself felt there. It has there even now many 
 fieai'ts ready, yearning to respond to it. And those at the Soutli, 
 who cling to slavery, depend for their support to a very great de- 
 gree upon popular feeling at the North, and feel fortified by the 
 
16 
 
 strong pro-slaveiy ground taken by the Northern press and pulpit, 
 more than by any or all things else. While slavery has its friends 
 at the North, its hold upon the South cannot be relaxed. But 
 right feeling here will work its way there. Our literature tinged 
 with it will be read and felt there. Our gi'eat political orators 
 once imbued with it will send the truth home to Southern hearts 
 in breathing thoughts and burning words. Our ecclesiastical 
 bodies are more or less intimately connected with the Southern 
 church, and their unanimous, decided, and strong sentiment will 
 soon find a response from every devout and intelligent Christian 
 at the South, and will awaken to sincere penitence and a better 
 mind those portions of the Southern chui-ch, which have entered 
 into willing compact with this iniquity. Let the whole North be 
 set right on this subject, and there would be no call for active in- 
 terference or expostulation. Slavery would expire without a blow. 
 It could not live a day without sympathy and support from beyond 
 its own borders. Public sentiment is not the lame and slow agent 
 which it once was ; but it moves on wmgs of fire, and is like light- 
 ning which glances through the whole finnament with a flash. 
 
 In addition to this general expression and fiill establishment of 
 right feeling upon this subject, it is most manifestly om' duty to 
 undo our own work, — to abolish slavery and all operations con- 
 nected with it, so far as the field of our jurisdiction extends. This 
 is the most momentous subject of national legislation ; nor can we 
 hope for the smile of Providence upon any of our counsels, while 
 this is overlooked. We are prone to deem it of the utmost im- 
 portance, (and it cei-tainly is impoi-tant,) that our legislators 
 should be sound in the faith on such subjects as the tariff and the 
 cuiTency, on which men yet may honestly differ, — is it not of 
 incomparably greater importance that they should be men, v/ho 
 will not by their continued subserviency to a system, which no 
 Northern man in his heart approves, call do^vn the judgments of 
 long-suffering Heaven upon our land ? The domestic slave-trade 
 should be stopped ; and that movement would insure speedy 
 emancipation in the slave-breeding states, where slaves are con- 
 fessedly not worth keejnng for their labor, and confine the e"\^l to 
 the extreme South and Soutliwest. The portion of the country 
 under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government should 
 be purged of this contamination. Let it be done by purchase, — » 
 it would not cost a third of wliat tlie Florida war cost, and it would 
 l)e far Ijetter to pay men for what is not their property, than to 
 let tlie most shadowy suspicion of injustice rest upon a philanthro- 
 ]iic movement. Let the whole North too, as one man, resist the 
 admission into the confederation of any new slaveholding mem- 
 Ijcr. Let all the non-slaveholding States also follow the noblQ 
 
17 
 
 ♦.example already set, and foi))id the agency of their magistrates 
 and the use of their jails for the detention and restoration of fugi- 
 tive slaves. Let the entire strength of tl)e non-slaveholdiiig 
 States also be put forth in behalf of such amendments to the ('(»ii- 
 stitution, as shall blot out all recognition of slavery, and apiK)rti<>ii 
 representation to the axitual number of free citizens in the several 
 States. 
 
 But^ on all these subjects, the present is the time for prompt 
 iind energetic counsel and action. Let new slavehokling States 
 be admitted into the Union, or created from conr^uered territory, 
 (and this may take place during the very next sessi(jn of Con- 
 gress, and scores of Northern votes be cast in favor of it,) and 
 not improbably the majority of representatives at the end of an- 
 other ten years will belong to the slaveholding States, and the 
 chains of slavery will then be riveted, till the iniquity of the na- 
 tion is full, and our name and place shall be blotted out from 
 among the nations of the earth. Is it said, that a decided staml 
 against slavery on the part of the noii-slaveholding States would 
 destroy the Union? Let it then be destroyed. If the Union can- 
 not be preserved, and the laws of God be at the same time kept, 
 better that human compacts yield, and Grod Idc obeyed at all haz- 
 ards. In saying this, let us not be understood as speaking trea- 
 sonably of our national Union. We prize and love the Union, and 
 dncerely pray that God may keep it. But we expect safety for it 
 only by its conforr/ity to the divme will and law. We do not be- 
 lieve that it is threatened by any philanthropic principle or move- 
 ment. On the other hand, were slavery removed from a place 
 so near its foundations, it ^vould be built up at once in the sti*ength 
 and beauty of liberty and virtue, and would l)e the desire of all 
 nations, the glory of the whole earth. But, if the Union is threat- 
 ened, it is by the reciprocal encroachments of the South and syeo- 
 I^hancy of the North, and by the reckless, unprincipled tone and 
 spirit thus given to the whole legislation and action of the Federal 
 Government. There is no part of the national administration not 
 infected by the spirit of slavery. " The wliole head is sick, and 
 the whole heart is faint." The South is arrogating to itself a vast 
 preponderance of government pationage and influence, and dictat- 
 ing laws for the whole Union, while Northern men, makhig shijv 
 wreck of principle on the subject of slavery, preserve it on no 
 other subject, and are pushing the country Jis fast as they can intc» 
 misrule and anarchy. Tlie only sah-ation of the country is for the 
 non-slavekolding States to assert their own ])rinciples, and to send 
 to the national legislature men of principle, Christians, philanthro- 
 pists, men that fear God, — not pledged and packed men, butnu-n 
 whose coD^iences their constituents can tiai^st, — not men, who 
 
18 
 
 need to be instracted, but such as shall go thoroughly furnished 
 for evei*y good work. 
 
 We have as yet said nothing of anti-slaveiy societies. So far 
 as those societies have breathed a denunciatory spirit, we heartily 
 disapprove of it. Yet they have not been the aggressors, nor can 
 there have been anything in theh" most bitter speeches and writ- 
 ings, whicli can bear comparison with the rancor of their assail- 
 ants, and the contumely and mjury, which have been heaped up- 
 on them without redress. They have never mobbed defenceless 
 women, nor stormed chui*ches, norsetfii-e to pubhc buildings, nor 
 taken the lives of their opponents. We would far sooner have stood 
 in then* ranks than in those of their adversaries ; for, whatever 
 their excesses may have been, they have had principle on their side, 
 though we wish that they had always had grace, after their great 
 Master's example, when they were reviled, not to revile again, 
 when they suffered, to threaten not, but to commit themselves to 
 liim tliat judgeth righteously. Had they all breathed this spirit, 
 as many of them uniformly have, their cause would by this time 
 have outgTown all opposition. Had such men as the lamented 
 Foilen, Channing and Ware, and some living luminaries of the 
 church, whom we could name, (men who never harbored an un- 
 kind thought, or wrote or uttered an ungentle word,) given the 
 whole tone to the anti-slavery movement, we should l3y this time 
 have seen the most glorious and successful reformation in modern 
 Christendom far advanced towards its completion. But though 
 the professed advocates of this cause may not have done all that 
 they might, or so well as they might, though they have been men 
 of like passions with other men, and not angels, which reformers 
 ai-e always expected to be, and never are, they deserve at our 
 hands decided vindication, as to the alleged injury to their own 
 cause, which has been charged upon them. 
 
 It is said, that their movement has closed many heart.s against 
 the claims of the slaves. Many hearts have indeed remained 
 closed ; but, in addition to the many thousands of active and 
 zealous members of anti-slavery organizations, there is a far more 
 general and strong feeling on the subject throughout the entire 
 North, than when tliis movement commenced. Nor was this a 
 new movement. There had been, all over the non-slaveholding 
 States, and in the more northerly of the slave-holding States, abo- 
 lition societies under that express name, in active operation for 
 many years from the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and in 
 the Northern and Middle States till 1820. In looking over their 
 reports and memorials, we find that they used as strong and earn- 
 est language on tlie subject of slavery, as can have been used in 
 the most vehement recent publications. Their reprobation of tlie 
 
19 
 
 whole system wasimlinutod and iutoiisely eiii|jluitic-; and tlicy niini- 
 bered among tlieir aL-tivc niomher.s tlie confessedly first and l)est 
 men in Chmcli and State. Tliey ])Oured in upon Congress peti- 
 tions and memorials against the adniission of ^Missouri into tlie 
 Union, and in these documents the strongest, most uncompromising 
 anti-shivery ground was assumed, as tlie unanimous exi)ression of 
 Northern sentiment. That was their hist gi-eat battle. Defeated 
 then through the treachery of men, on whom they im})licitly de- 
 [)ended, they left the field, and were probably disbanded ; for we 
 find no subsequent traces of their existence. 
 
 The defection of the Nurtli from its legithnatc prhici{)les on tliat 
 occasion no doubt deadened the general conscience ; and little was 
 said or thought on the subject of slavery for the succeeding ten or 
 twelve years. Meanwhile new relations were gi'OAving up between 
 the North and the South. The Southern cotton trade dming this 
 interval rose from utter insignificance to a place secoiid to no other 
 branch of business. The manufactories of the New Iv.igland States 
 became numerous and extensive, and depended on the South for 
 theu' raw material. Our New England ships, shut out ]»y univei- 
 sal peace from the general carrying trade, which they had once 
 enjoyed, found the transportation of Southern cotton their surest 
 and most lucrative employment. Thus had the Noith in a very 
 brief space of time become connected with the South by the clos- 
 est and most constraining pecuniaiy ties, so that the rei)ublication 
 of views, which twenty years before it had been scar.dalous not 
 to admit, now touched new chords of interest, on which it jarred 
 harsh and unwelcome music. The piinciples were not new ; but 
 the relations of Northern men had Ijecome changed. 
 
 Maryland and Virginia abolitionism owes its decline to a similar 
 chain of causes. For many years slavery had been in those 
 States an intolerable pecuniary burden. For the ordinary opera- 
 tions of agriculture, slave labor was well known to 1)e less lucra- 
 tive than free labor ; and yet the latter could not be had, while 
 the fonuer was emploj^ed. Much of the cultivated land of those 
 States was exhausted by the perpetual succession of the same 
 crops, and it could not be improved, nor could new land be 
 brought under cultivation, without a larger capital in human 
 stock, than owners could generally afford, or the profits of agricul- 
 ture authorize. The African slave-market was open until ]80><. 
 and the more Southern States could buy slaves stolen ready grown 
 in Africa, cheaper than they could be raised in "Mrginia and 
 Maryland ; and the suspension of the African slave trade left the 
 country fully stocked, if not overstocked with slaves, and, South- 
 ern industry remaining nearly stationary for a series of years, tl 
 slave-growing States found no regular or lucrative nuukct for their 
 
 le 
 
20 
 
 increase. No wonder that they talked loud and long of emancl- 
 j)ation. They were undoubtedly on the eve of decided action. 
 But when cotton, from being littje cultivated, became in a few 
 years the great staple of the South, the demand for slaves grew 
 laro-e and constant, the raising of slaves for the market became the 
 most lucrative business in the country, and Virginia and Mai-yland 
 found a mine of wealth in an institution, which had long been 
 draining their resources.* What room then is there for surprise, 
 that public feehng in these States should have undergone an en- 
 tire revulsion? And is it not much more reasonable to attribute^ 
 this revulsion to new mercenary motives operating in behalf of 
 slavery, than to the re-echoing from the North of the very senti- 
 ments of Washington, Jefferson, and Kandolph, — of sentiments, 
 which for nearly fifty years had found free and fervent utterance 
 in the legislature of Virginia ? 
 
 It is often said, that the anti-slavery movement at the North has 
 been the cause of many hardships and disabilities to the slaves at 
 the South, particularly of the restrictions upon their movements 
 and social jratherino-s, and of the laws ao-ainst their beino; tauo-ht 
 to read. But we find on examination, that most of these effects 
 preceded their alleged cause. The American Anti-Slavery So- 
 ciety was formed in December, 1 8-33 ; the New England Society, 
 whicli accomplished but little, a year or two sooner. It was not 
 till 1834, or 1835, that the recent anti-slavery movement became 
 of sufiicient magnitude to attract attention at the South, or to be 
 generally regarded at the North as anything more than an ephem- 
 eral effort of a few visionary and fanatical philanthropists. But 
 the severest of the slave-laws are as old as the constitutions of the 
 respective States ; and most of the additional restrictions and dis- 
 abilities, as well those affecting the free blacks as the slaves, may 
 be traced back to at least ten or twelve jevLis before the forma- 
 tion of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The prohibition of 
 Sunday and other schools for the education of slaves, we can trace 
 back in South Carolina to 1824; and, on looking over Niles's 
 llegister for the five or six years next preceding and following 
 that date, we find numerous enactments of the same kind in that 
 and other Southern States, and very many indications of an anx- 
 ious and disturbed state of feeling with reference to the negi'O pop- 
 ulation, which we do not find within the last few years, f Possibly 
 laws of this character may have been more rigorously executed 
 
 * In 1829, tlie vf\lne of Slaves exported from Virginia, was computed at a 
 milium and a half of dollars ; in 1836, at twenty- fmtr millions. See Debates 
 in tiie Virginia Convention for 1829, p. 99. Niles' Register, Oct. 8, 1S.36. 
 
 t Niles' Register, April 21, 1821 ; March 15, 1823; Dec. 26, 1829 ; .Jan. 16, 
 1830; April 24, 1830, &c. &c. 
 
 54 W 
 
21 
 
 ftlnec the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society ; but 
 very few such laws have been enacted since that time. The state 
 of things, which Nortliern abolitionists have been so freely charg- 
 ed with bringing about, existed in full during the interval when 
 the North hardly lifted a voice against slavery. With regard to 
 the present condition of the slaves, we have unimpeachable testi- 
 mony that they are better treated than formerly ; and this is doubt- 
 less to be attributed to the influence of public ojnnion at the 
 North, even in the partial and distorted forms in which it has 
 reached the people of the South. It is said in an article in de- 
 fence of slavery in the Southern Ecview, "The fact is notorious, 
 that slaves are better treated now than formerly, and that their 
 condition is still improving." Gen. Scott, in a letter, in which 
 he expresses strong disapprobation of the anti-slavery movement, 
 makes the same assertion. So much for the alleged injury to the 
 slave from his Northern friends. 
 
 It is also said, that the efforts of Northern abolitionists have 
 fanned an insun-ectionary spirit at the South. Against this charge 
 there is almnd^nt prima facie evidence, without our looking in- 
 to the history of slave insurrections. It is well known that lining 
 anti-slavery agents are not suffered to go at large in the Southern 
 States. The only effort that can be made, therefore, at the South, 
 is by sending anti-slavery books, pamphlets, and newspapers. 
 These are indeed sent and circulated in large numbers, not among 
 the slaves, (for the slaves cannot read,) but among the masters; 
 and, if the slaves are made acquainted with their contents, it must 
 ])e through the gTatuitous agency of their masters. In point of 
 fact, all the great slave rebellions on record took place before the 
 formation of the American Anti-vSlavery Society. The writer in 
 the Southern Review, already referred to, says, tliat "under no 
 circumstances can a servile war ever take place ;" that " in vain 
 has the United States mail been infested and burdened with in- 
 cendiary documents;" and that " no temptations or artifices can 
 seduce the slaves from then allegiance." This Review is pub- 
 lished at Charleston, which was the seat in 1823 and 1882 of ex- 
 tensive negro insurrections, discovered just on the eve of execu- 
 tion. It is well known to many of our readers, that the whole 
 population of Cliarleston was, for a long series of years, in a state 
 of pei-jDctual alarm and apprehension from the slaves, and that 
 vSouth Carolina took the lead in those legislative restrictions, 
 which imply a state of dread and consternation. It is truly grat- 
 ifying, while anti-slavery principles are so rapidly extending tliem- 
 selves at the North, to find descriptions of a state of entire and 
 fearless security emanating from the highest literary author- 
 ity in that very city and State, in which, prior to the anti- 
 
22 
 
 slavci^ movement, the most fearful elements of combustion were 
 believed to exist. 
 
 Is it farther said, that the anti-slavery movement at the North 
 is entirely devoid of influence upon the South ? Not thus do South- 
 ern people say. We might fill half a score of pages with unim- 
 peachable Southern testimony to the effect of this movement upon 
 the Southern mind and heart. Judge Upshur said, in his pros- 
 pectus for the estabhshment of the Southern Review : ' ' The de- 
 fence of the peculiar institutions of the slave-holding States is the 
 great and leading object of the work. That they are in danger, 
 it would Ije folly to disguise. A party has arisen in the other 
 States, whose object is the overthrow of the relation between mas- 
 ter and slave ; and from present appearances it will continue to 
 increase till the object it has in view is consummated, unless effi- 
 cient measures be taken to arrest further progress." The editor 
 of the South Carolina Messenger, in earnestly soliciting subscrip- 
 tions for this same work, says : "■ If your institutions are ever to 
 be defended, no time is to be lost. Delay, in all cases dangerous, 
 would be fatal in this." The North Carolina Watchman says-: 
 *' We are inclined to believe there is more abolitionism at the 
 South, than piiidence will pennit to be openly avowed." A let- 
 ter from the JMaiyville Theological Seminaiy to the editor of the 
 Emancipator says : '"At least one half of the students of this the- 
 ological institution are decided abolitionists, and are very much 
 strengthened by peitismg the publications sent by you." A gen-s 
 tleman of Frederick County, Md., wiites: "The anti-slavery 
 *3ause is rapidly gaining ground in this section of the country. 
 Three years ago, abohtiunist and insui-rectionist were interchange-? 
 ^ble terms, and an abolition paper a prodigy ; now anti-slavery 
 papers are re^d regularly by our most respectable and intelligent 
 citizens." Gen. Duff Green writes ; '* We believe that the South 
 has nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not beheve that 
 the abolitionists intend to excite the slaves to insurrection. We 
 believe that we have most to fear from the organized action upon 
 the consciences and fears of the slave-holders themselves from the 
 insinuation of their dangerous heresies into our schools, our pul- 
 pits, and our domestic circles." 
 
 We liave, we tmst, been successful in defendmg the anti-slavery 
 organization from some of the grave charges, which have been 
 made against it. But it is not by societies alone that the work 
 I'Ain 1)0 aocomplislied. They can only sow the seed ; and this 
 they have done faitlAdly, diligently, even if not always in good 
 temper. It remains for us, citizens, Christians, to supersede 
 them, (as every true friend of the cause will be grateful to have 
 them superseded,) by adopting, all as Qwo, the great principles, 
 ^vhich tkaj have cheiished, 
 
THE SPIRITUAL MIRROR, 
 
 OS, LOOKING-GLASS : 
 
 Exhibiting the Human heart as being either the Temple of God, 
 or the habitation of Devils. Exemplified in a series of ten copper- 
 plate Engravings. Intended to aid in a better understanding of 
 Man's Fallen Natuie. Anciently printed in the French language, 
 in which five editions were printed in 1732. Translated into the 
 German language, from which it is now translated. By P,etcr 
 Bauder. 
 
 "By this the children of God are manifest, and the children of 
 the Devil."—! John, 8:10. 
 
 Sixth American Edition. Fifty cents single, four dollars per 
 Newburyport ; Published by 
 
 CHARLES WHIPPLE, 
 

 
 
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